1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for controlling pollution contained in smoke and other industrial byproducts, and more particularly to a pollution control system for use with a coal or lignite burning electrical power generating plant.
2. History of the Prior Art
The state of the art of pollution control equipment has advanced to the point where a variety of different systems and equipment is available for reducing or eliminating pollutants in smoke, exhaust or other byproducts of various industrial processes. Examples of such systems and equipment are provided by U.S. Pat. Nos. 581,448, 468,408, 2,721,065, 3,756,171, 3,768,981, 3,501,113, 3,125,613, 3,361,150 and 2,772,779. The systems and equipment disclosed by these patents employ various different techniques for removal of pollutants from smoke, flue gases and the like such as by forcing the gases into a body of water and through an apertured device to break up the resulting bubbles. Still other systems use flue gas scrubbers in combination with a settlement tank or the like from which precipitated particulate matter may be withdrawn. It is also known, as evidenced by some of the above mentioned patents, to provide apparatus for automatically controlling the chemical content of water or other liquids used to neutralize and precipitate solid particulates from the gases. However, many of the systems heretofore known have had very limited capacity and thus have not been suitable for large installations. Where large installations are used they are large and complex and thereby add substantially to the capital costs of a plant.
Thus, despite the various techniques and equipment known in the art for providing pollution control of smoke and other waste products of industrial processes, there has yet to be developed a system which is truly effective in reducing to safe levels the pollutants generated by processes involving a very high and rapid consumption of fuels such as coal or lignite. For example, there are in existence electrical power generating plants which burn very large quantities of coal, lignite or similar fuels on a continuous, 24 hour a day basis. Such plants are known to burn as much as 400 tons of coal per hour and are potentially capable of producing as much as 48 tons of ash per hour and 36 tons of sludge per hour. If pollution is properly minimized, the resulting sludge in such plants could amount to as much as 7 railroad hopper carloads of sludge per day. The furnace in such a plant can produce as much as 250,000,000 cubic feet of smoke per minute.
Because of the tremendous volume of pollutants generated on a continuous basis by such plants, conventional pollution control systems and equipment have proven unable to reduce the pollutants to levels considered safe by agencies in charge of policing such matters, thereby placing the continued existence and operation of such plants and the prospects of building new plants in jeopardy. In addition to being incapable of reducing the pollutants in such large industrial plants to safe levels, conventional pollution control equipment typically involves other problems, not the least of which is the inability to withstand the rather harsh chemical byproducts of such plants over reasonable periods of time without the need for continual heavy maintenance and replacement of parts and equipment. Still further problems reside in the fact that many conventional pollution control systems require that the components thereof be installed in and as a part of the industrial plant which generates the pollution, often requiring that the plant be specially designed at the outset so as to include the pollution control equipment. Installation of pollution control equipment in existing plants may thereby be made very difficult or impossible.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an improved pollution control system.
In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a pollution control system capable of reducing the pollutants generated by large industrial plants such as coal or lignite burning electrical power generating plants to safe levels.
It would furthermore be advantageous to provide a pollution control system having sufficient resistance to the relatively harsh chemical byproducts of most industrial processes so as to be capable of substantially continuous operation with little or no maintenance over long periods of time.
It would still further be advantageous to provide a pollution control system which can be installed completely outside of the industrial plant generating the pollution it is to control, so as to facilitate installation of the system with new plants but particularly in the case of plants which already exist.